A Lurgan-based food manufacturer has high hopes of building a new 53,000 sq ft food factory in the Halfpenny Valley Industrial Estate area of the town.
Family-run Avondale Foods notified Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council of its intention to build the facility in submission of a proposal of application notice (PAN) – such is the scale of the development.
The company was first founded 60 years ago in 1965 by Harry Geddis and Derek Geddis – who started out by growing and selling vegetables from their family farm – and today it specialises in the production of fresh packaged food produce from their substantial Dukestown Lane premises in Craigavon.
In the early 1980s, Avondale Foods became the first company in Northern Ireland to manufacture coleslaw and quickly became one of the leading suppliers of coleslaw in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
The second generation of the family have now taken “key roles within the senior management team” which employs a staff of over 400 people which “fluctuates according to the demands of production”.
The application – which will enter into a community consultation phase ahead of full planning submission – denotes the company’s ambition to construct a new food factory with associated ancillary buildings on lands within the industrial estate, North West of Ballynamoney Lane.
The PAN notice – submitted on March 7 – has been accepted by ABC Council, finding that it contains “sufficient information with regards community consultation measures and therefore considers it complies with Section 27 of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 and the Planning (Development Management) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015”.
A community consultation phase is due to be advertised shortly.
